The Hunger Games came out in theatres recently, setting new box-office records and drawing millions of eager fans. The film had two tie-in games announced, one on iOS and one on Facebook.
The Facebook game didn’t materialise on March 23 as expected, instead launching as a closed beta. With no public word from developer Funtactix, it seemed particularly strange that such a closely tied-in game was missing for opening weekend.
As of today, however, The Hunger Games Adventures has become available for the public to play. In a phone call earlier this week, representatives from Funtactix stressed that the invite-only opening day launch was in the plans all along, as part of the “fan-first,” “fan-focused” approach that Lionsgate has taken in its marketing of the film. Over 100,000 fans have logged into the game so far, they said, even while it was in its invite-only phase.
They also hinted that Funtactix is planning for their Facebook project to last for the long haul, explaining that they are the “official game of the franchise”, representing both the book and film worlds. The franchise’s biggest, most involved fans will indeed be pleased by some of the revelations the game plans to unveil in the future, including the first ever endorsed-by-the-author official map of the series’s fictional future nation, Panem.
Meanwhile, as film tie-in projects go, The Hunger Game Adventures isn’t bad. It’s very much a Facebook game, with all the good and bad of incremental play that involves, but it plays with Katniss’s world in a way that younger fans — and it is, after all, a young adult book — will probably enjoy. Funtactix has plans to keep expanding the game’s world, content, and areas (eventually displaying other Districts) as time goes on.
The Hunger Games Adventures [Official Site]
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